The truth of the inspector
by sharingstories2
Summary: "Penny I need you to listen ok?, I know you solved all my cases, look I'm not as thick as I portray. I know everything you've done for me. Remember that box? The one you are banned from looking in I need you to look in it."
1. Chapter 1

Ever since Penny was little she'd always remembered her uncle gadget as fun loving and slightly dim-witted. Even when she found out her uncles job she had to admit that she was surprised. He was always inquisitive but she couldn't see him beating up bad guys.  
When her parents died and he became her legal guardian she was fascinated by his robotic body with a human heart. She soon became worried about him though, his line of work was dangerous and she was terrified of losing him. So by the time she was eleven she began following him on missions. Penny was surprised at the fact he couldn't really solve the missions. As such Penny always solved them and gave him the credit.  
When she turned twelve Gadget enrolled her at the agency where he worked and brought her on missions. He recognized her prodigy mind and told her if she was ever in danger to run as far as possible.  
When Penny turned fifteen she and her uncle gadget went on their most dangerous mission yet, only for Penny to be kidnapped.  
Her Uncle gadget found her in a MAD layer. That's when Penny saw how clever her uncle was. He had foiled MAD'S schemes and after finding his niece he ran back to headquarters.  
At headquarters he had only five minutes to disarm the bomb. He had disarmed every one of them except one. He ran up the third floor corridor and up the stairs, penny hot on his heels. Gadget closed the door and put the entire level on lockdown before Penny could enter. When she reached the doors she could see the bomb counting down from ten. She banged on the doors begging her uncle to get out. Tears streamed down her face as gadget looked at her with resolution in his eyes.  
"Penny listen to me I can't disarm the bomb and the only way to stop it from blowing the building up is to lock the floor down from the inside." Penny stared at her uncle wide eyed. He couldn't sacrifice himself he was all she had left.  
"Penny I need you to listen ok?, I know you solved all my cases, look I'm not as thick as I portray. I know everything you've done for me. Remember that box? The one you are banned from looking in I need you to look in it."  
The clock struck one as the metal panel slid down and blocked Penny's sight of her uncle. She ran away and out of the building as the bang of the bomb could be heard. Penny sunk to the floor as Brian came and Lay next to her, whining for his master. Once the chief said it was safe to enter the building he took penny aside.  
"Listen penny we can't find him, not skin or metal, gone inspector gadget seemed to have escaped." Penny couldn't believe the stuff that she was hearing. Was it possible?. Could he have escaped. The thought was almost too much for Penny to bear. She looked at Quimby, "Chief my uncle had sacrificed himself, find me solid proof he has escaped and I'll lead the search but for now I just want to go home." Quimby saw the broken exteriors the girl now had even if she was trying so hard not to show it. As such he got one of his agents to drive her back to Gadgets house.

Penny got in the bath and finally let her emotions loose. Her beloved uncle was dead. DEAD. The uncle that without any experience had raised her from the age of five. The uncle that dressed up as a woman to attempt to cheer Penny up. Granted it didn't help but it made Penny laugh. This was a man who despite being goofy took Penny's first boyfriend aside and threatened him with his life if he dare ever hurt Penny. Penny sobbed as memory after memory entered her head. Everything from finally getting Penny to visit her parent's grave to attempting to help Penny out with homework. Her uncle truly was a great man. At his age and with his job he still found time to raise a five year old with absolutely no experience beforehand. To Penny her uncle was a man of different faces.

Upon getting out of the bath Penny fell into bed and Brian curled up beside her. Penny fell into a terrifying sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

When Penny awoke the next morning she felt cold. The pain from the day before still hadn't disappeared. She got up as the feeling of loss hit her. She began to shake as she realised she was alone. Every time something bad happened she had always had her uncle. When she had no one she had had her uncle. Yet this time she had no family. Her last family was gone, all because he had believed in saving people. Once again the tears fell.

After spending most of the morning in bed Penny decided to get up. She made breakfast and gave Brain some dog food. Brain for his part observed Penny closely. He recognised the sadness his master had as it was the same she had after her parents died. At the time she was five and was scared and confused now though she was fifteen and lost and scared. Unfortunately Brain didn't know how to comfort her. She was no longer little and could be cheered up by a lick to the face. Now she was a young woman who had seen and felt too much to be considered safe.

Penny eat her cereal in silence and stared blankly at the wall. Her blank staring was interrupted by a knock at the door. Penny looked out the peep hole to see chief Quimby. She opened the door.  
"Hello Penny may I come in?" Penny shrugged and let him in. Quimby took in the home's feel of depressingness and the empty bowl of cereal on the table.  
"So Penny I know this must be rough time, yet we have got some startling news-"  
"Look if this is about my uncle being alive, don't I don't want false hope. I couldn't bear it" The chief looked down. "I know it's practically impossible but this is him we're talking about….. He's….. He's special." Penny looked down.  
"If he's so special why would he let me think he'd died?, chief I've lost my parents and the likelihood is that I've lost my uncle to…. I can't let myself think that…. That he left me or maybe he's been kidnapped or in a coma somewhere." The chief looked at the youngest inspector. She was right, the chief just didn't want to admit it.  
"Very well but just so you know since you are still underage until this whole thing blows over myself or one of my agents will be checking up on you" Penny shrugged. The chief took this as his que to leave and left.

Penny aimlessly wondered around the house till by some weird coincident she ended up in her uncle's room. Her and Brain sat on his bed and stared at nothing. That was until Brain jumped up and pulled a box out of the inspector's wardrobe. Penny looked confused before she remembered her uncles last words **_look in the box. _**She grabbed the box and looked through only to find DVD's dating back roughly three years. Herself and Brain ran to the DVD player to play the DVD.


	3. Chapter 3

Inspector Gadget popped up on the screen.

**The inspector sat on his bed his face slack.  
"Today I learn a valuable lesson to listen to my niece, she is always right. Today she helped me foil MADS plan. Granted afterward I felt sick to my stomach. She had pit herself in danger to save me. I'm not quite sure I should be letting her be a detective. She is the most precious thing I have and I can't even tell her. I know my memory fades and sometimes I forget even who I am but I always remember her. She truly is unique. So as of today I, John Brown shall downgrade my inspector gadget role. I know Penny will follow me and I know if I solved the case she wouldn't learn a thing so I'll play dumb and hopefully give her, her own independence. As of today Penny shall be the best detective to have walked the planet.**

**Gadget out!"**

Penny's heart swelled at the fact that she had doubted her uncle only for him to yet again show he wasn't the same uncle she knew. She carried on watching.

**The inspector sat in front of the camera with a gash down his face. He looked at the camera and smiled.**

**"****Penny has achieved everything I had hoped. This was the fifth mission she has come on and unsurprisingly she met Talon. I had hoped that my niece ad Claws nephew hadn't of met to be honest yet I can see they are obviously gonna see each other more often. Yet my dear Penny she defeated MAD again and I couldn't be more proud" Gadgets face fell. "I went, after the chief forced me, threatened Penny to do it to. My results should be back within a month we just hope that the memory will return. I don't want the process to happen but if it will will not forget them.**

**Gadget out!"**

Penny stared at the screen. Her uncle was keeping secrets and Penny didn't know how to feel yet hadn't she kept a secret by letting him take all the glory? Yet the memory problem now that was something she was determined to find out about.


	4. Chapter 4

Penny had spent the next two weeks scouring the house for any sign of any evidence and had found nothing. It had gotten to the point where she had broken into her uncle's office only to find the chief there. So she had decided to ask him.  
"Sir did my uncle have any medical issues you know, minus the mechanics?" Quimby froze and spun on his heel.  
"Why?" he asked, scared. She shrugged  
"I don't know he just seemed… to forget things and I was wondering if that has to do with why no one could find him" Quimby paled, he placed a hand on her shoulder and composed his face.  
"Your uncle was fine as far as I knew, now why don't you go home and sleep, it seems as you though you are overthinking his lack of existence" she nodded and went home but didn't sleep. She pulled out the box and played another tape.

**Gadgets face was bruised, blue and black marched into one colour.  
"I had to protect Penny, Mad nearly got her. He truly is nefarious but I stopped him only to make a deal with Talon. He didn't even want anything in return, he just said he would keep his promise, I can sleep soundly**

**Gadget out!"**

Penny skipped to the next tape

**Gadgets face was back to normal and he was smiling  
"I love Penny, she pulled me out of my forgetful days even though it was just for a while. I know one day she will find out but for now I want her to remain wonderfully obvious. She doesn't deserve my burden. Onto happier things I met Talon again, he is keeping his promise Penny will never be alone**

**Gadget out!"**

The tape cut off and Penny leant against the wall, crying. She was still no closer to finding her uncle and she has never felt so utterly clueless in her life.


	5. Chapter 5

M.A.D.S Lair was dark and dingy which is why she was surprised that Talons home was not. Penny had always thought Talon was a M.A.D minion but at the suburban look of his home she guessed she was wrong. Penny thought that knocking was too easy but truthfully she didn't have much of a plan and she was far too tired to do anything grand and well spyish. So she knocked.

When Talon answered the door he was immediately on the defence until he saw how haggard she looked.  
"Penny?" he asked, she smiled at him lightly  
"May I come in?" she asked timidly. He looked around for a second before letting her in.

She was sat on the couch, taking the cup of tea he gave her. He laughed at her suspicious look  
"It's not poisoned" she looked even more suspicious but drank it anyway.  
"So what can I do for an esteemed agent as yourself?" she glared at him, he face puffed up from crying.  
"I need answered, my uncle said that you made him a promise concerning myself, what was it?" At this all Talons teasing left and his face went pale.  
"He told you that?" Penny nodded. Talon got up and ran his hands through his hair.  
"What happened to him?" Penny looked at him confused, the news he was gone wasn't even public yet how did Talon know.  
"He… he sacrificed himself to stop a bomb going off… his body was never recovered and how did you know something had happened?" Talon's face paled, he paid no heed to Penny as he grabbed his laptop and typed in one message.

_The eagle has missed its launch _

When he remembered Penny was there, he turned around to her and pulled her down onto the couch.  
"Your uncle made me promise that no matter what… he made me promise that I would protect you. Even if it meant my death" she stared at him. Her uncle would never make him make such a promise. Talon could see the doubt in her eyes.  
"Surely you didn't think that all those near misses and failed plans were you saving the day, you are a truly amazing person Penny but I'm afraid to stop my uncle you needed to believe what you were doing" Penny stared at the floor.  
"Is the eagle my uncle?" Talon nodded.  
"I can't tell you everything Penny… it's classified but your uncle had me recruited…. He needed me to do things that were uniquely attuned to my skill set. I don't exactly know what your uncle was up to he told me enough so I could do my job but he was the front man and without him… without him I have no idea what is happened." Talon went to hug her but she stood up abruptly and went to the door.  
"Thanks Talon but… I don't think you can protect me anymore" and then she left feeling more confused and hurt than when she came.


	6. Chapter 6

Talon would love to say that he knew what the hell was going on but in all honesty he couldn't be bothered lying. Gadget had told Talon his mission a week before, he was to await a text that told him to go forth and he was to message that the eagle has launched. So when he heard that the inspector was possible dead he had no choice. He had to go to chief Quimby.

The chief was having an okay day all things considered, he had signed off a few deals. Managed to keep Penny in the dark about her uncle and had even gotten time for lunch. So all in all a good day. That was until Talon turned up at his door.  
"Talon?" the old man asked. Talon stormed past the man into his home.  
"I understand that you have had a bad few weeks, what with gadget but I am still on your payroll, unofficially of otherwise. He was _my boss, my friend. _Why was I not informed. I have been sitting waiting to let the others know they can go ahead. We have a chance to bring down my uncle and now we can't I need to know my orders sir." The chief frowned again.

"Talon, my boy. We don't know if he's dead but without him we can't go forward." Talon wrung his hands.

"I think we should use Penny… or, or at least give her a choice. This was her uncle's one goal minus raising her. She knows, or at least she will. We all know about the tapes that he left her. We all know she watched them. She will know sir, she should know" Quimby shot down the idea which only made Talon angrier.  
"Well tuff luck sir because**I will tell her**" and then he turned around and left.

When talon knocked on Penny's door he began shaking, he didn't have any clue what to tell her. He didn't know how to tell her that the man she looked up to had lied to her. Yet when she let him in she demanded an explanation that he was all too willing to give.  
"It all started two years ago… he recruited me. At first I thought no way, my uncle was my family and yours was well a stranger besides it wasn't like my uncle was a real threat. Then gadget showed me what my uncle was _actually _doing. He was killing like it was going out of fashion, taking from the poor and being genuinely evil." Talon took a deep breath.  
"My job was to bring down M.A.D.S operation from the inside and we have a chance, you uncle told me my mission but we don't know what he was supposed to do. We don't know what to do now either because he's dead" he saw her flinch and was about to apologise.  
"I know what he wanted to do." Then she ran upstairs, Brian behind her and came back down with the tapes before putting on.  
_Gadget sat on his chair, his face covered in bruises and a bust lip. He breathed in deeply.  
"You know by now that I recruited Talon to bring down his uncle, I'm sorry that I have lied to you but now I am going to tell you the truth. I'm dying, I have this disease that cannot be cured and I'm going to lose my memory, on top of that I'm losing my heart. I should have told you but I couldn't' because I have a mission and I don't know if I will return which is why I told you to look in the box's. My Mission it to exterminate Claw. I know you wouldn't think me a ruthless killer but I have to Penny, as my last act of sanity I have to end his reign of madness and for the fact that I lied to you I will be forever sorry. I hope you will forgive me._

_Yours forever _

_Uncle gadget._

Talon stood ridged, shaking slightly.  
"I never thought he would kill my uncle" Penny just let him rant, her uncle was disappearing from her view. He couldn't be a cold blooded killer, he was Gadget, her hero. After a while both teens settled into an uneasy silence. Talon picked at his fingers and Penny stroked Brian slowly. She inhaled sharply as she took in what Talon said next.  
"Looks like I have my orders" he said solemnly. Penny sighed  
"I want to do it" she asked. Talon shot up, surprised. He shook his head vigorously  
"You would shoot a man in cold blood?" she nodded as a lone tear fell down her face.  
"It was his last mission and Talon you couldn't do it, you loved your uncle despite his faults." Talon slumped onto the couch.  
"He'll be vulnerable when he's holding his conference at our home, he stands on the podium the conference is in two days' time, and I'll show you the perfect spot to shoot" and the he got up and left.

The next day Talon showed her where the best place to take a shot was from, he showed her how to aim and shoot. She nodded and told him she was ready. That night when he went home he hoped against the devil himself that Penny's soul would still be intact when she pulled that trigger, her soul was too beautiful to lose.


	7. Chapter 7

When Penny woke up she felt her stomach churn, she was going to kill someone today and she didn't think that was a bad thing. She got changed and got her weapons ready before heading to the spot where she would take the shot. She texted Talon and told him she was ready. Her line of sight matched up with Claw's head as she felt her palms get sweaty, sweat bead on her face and her heart race at a million miles an hour. She breathed deeply and took the shot, a single shot that ended a man's life. She sucked in a breath as talon hit a button, making explosions go off inside, stunning M.A.D.S agents and letting the good guys go in and arrest them.

Later that night Penny sat with her feet in the water, her pink dress pulled over her knees and her blonde hair in a lose plat. Talon sat next to her and grabbed her hand, she placed her head in his shoulder.  
"I'm glad M.A.D is no more but we still haven't found my uncle." Talon sighed, that had plagued him as well.  
"We will Penny, he wouldn't leave you behind, and he loved you" Penny wasn't about to reply when Chief Quimby came over  
"Penny… I'm terribly sorry but when he searched Claws layer we found your uncle… he has passed" Penny stood still, she wouldn't take that. She couldn't, he had to be alive. Nodding she sat down, Quimby looked to Talon who nodded.  
"I'm sorry Penny, I really am" she just nodded, too shocked to speak.  
"I'm a little tired, I think I just want to go home"

When the funeral came about Penny stood hand in hand with Talon as she wept over her uncle's coffin. She kissed his forehead and said  
"I forgive and love you" just as the coffin closed before she walked away with Talon, promising to be the woman her uncle saw.


	8. Dear readers

Dear readers.

This is to address something that quite a few people have noticed, whether you have only read this story or others you may have noticed that a lot of my stories carry dark themes such as

· Suicide

· Mental illness

· Rape

· Abuse (of any kind)

· Self-harm

So I feel the need to stress this and I need your help. If you have read any of my stories and they have triggers, even if the trigger seems really remote could you please leave a review or private message, as much as the stories I write are for the reader's enjoyment sometimes they can be very triggering. Thank you.

That is not the reason I have written this note. I am here today to tell everyone that they are worth it, even if you don't believe it, I do. You are all stronger than what ails you and what ails you can be defeated, I believe that everyone has an inner battle inside them but you can survive. If you are experiencing anything, whether it be mental illness or you have been through a traumatic experience, hell even if you just feel sad or upset it is okay to get help. It is okay. I understand this is scary and it could mean that you will have to experience changes that you are not ready for but it will all be worth it. You can get there.

I want to wish everyone reading this all the happiness in the world, you deserve it. Remember you all have beautiful souls and its okay to feel sad and alone or whatever you are feeling. I want you to know that even if you feel like no one believes in you, I do.

Thank you all, I hope you all find happiness and joy in your lives.

\- Sharingstories2


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